Thursday, March 2, 2017

Not Quite Life as We Know It

More than 130 Android apps on the Google Play store have been found to contain malicious coding, possibly because the developers were using infected computers, according to security researchers.

The 132 apps were found generating hidden iframes, or an HTML document embedded inside a webpage, linking to two domains that have hosted malware, according to security firm Palo Alto Networks.

Google has already removed the apps from its Play store. But what's interesting is the developers behind the apps probably aren't to blame for including the malicious code, Palo Alto Networks said in a Wednesday blog post.

The current scientific definition of life is that organisms maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, and reproduce.

I put it to you beloved reader. Does not the humble computer virus meet these requirements to one degree or another?

1 comment:

The rest... well, to at least some degree, yeah I guess so. In part because that's what their original purpose was... they were originally an experiment (gone horribly wrong) that was attempting to create artificial intelligence.